Yellow Kerchiefs Don’t Blow Wins But Price Still Wants To Treat Cougars’ Epidemic Of Penalties

The Washington State football team has seen more flags than a tourist at the United Nations.

The penalty situation has become so bad, in fact, that coach Mike Price was flagged for a 7-second delay during his radio program the other day.

Saturday’s 17-penalty ensemble against Oregon State was the clincher, prompting Price to hire officials to monitor practices this week.

WSU’s 24-3 victory - 17-11 in the penalty column - has been obscured in recent days by the cloud of yellow surrounding the Cougars. This team is 4-2 in spite of itself, the critics charge, and perhaps they’re right.

The facts suggest it doesn’t matter.

Under Price, the record shows, the Cougars are 23-15 when they commit 10 or more penalties - compared to just 19-28 in games with less than 10. That includes a 4-0 mark in games with 17 or more penalties.

WSU reached the pinnacle of improbability three years ago against Arizona State, setting a Pacific-10 Conference record with 20 penalties - while waxing the Sun Devils 44-25.

“There really isn’t the correlation between penalties and winning that you would think,” said Price. “However, I do not think that you can consistently win with 17 penalties, so we’re going to cut that back.”

The logic is sound, although Saturday’s effort marked the second straight season WSU committed 17 penalties while blowing out the meager Beavers.

Price seems most concerned by penalties for illegal motion. And while he has refrained from blaming officials, one gets the feeling Price didn’t agree with the three such calls his team drew Saturday.

“In our offense, where we’re shifting and running motion and giving them different formations, it’s inherent there are going to be some (motion) penalties,” he said.

“If we just lined up in a wing formation and always went on the same cadence, we wouldn’t have very many penalties, but we wouldn’t move the ball very well, either.”

WSU, ranked last (meaning worst) in the conference in penalty yardage per game (92.5) this season, is just one of several successful Pac-10 teams to encounter such troubles.

Unbeaten and 19th-ranked California, which visits Martin Stadium for homecoming Saturday night at 7:22, ranks ninth in the Pac-10 with 91 penalty yards per game. Unbeaten and No. 4 Arizona State is eighth with 82 per game. No. 25 Washington is seventh (71.6).

The Pac-10’s least-penalized teams are Stanford (47.8) and Arizona (48.3). Neither is above .500.

Penalty problems are nothing new for the Cougars, who haven’t ranked better than eighth in the conference penalty standings since 1985.

Gleason has surgery

Steve Gleason underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Tuesday and is out indefinitely.

The redshirt freshman from Spokane had become a regular in the rotation at linebacker and a standout on special teams.

Gleason, who has endured knee trouble throughout the season, was in on seven tackles against Oregon State, including five unassisted.

Only linebacker James Darling, who leads the Pac-10 in tackles, helped make more against the Beavers (12).

With Gleason out, Grady Emmerson will back up Brandon Moore at weakside linebacker. Moore suffered a shoulder sprain Saturday, but should be able to play.

Late Night with WSU

Saturday’s game against Cal will be the first of two straight night home games for the Cougars.

The Oct. 26 game against USC is scheduled to begin at 7:22. Both games were changed to accommodate live television broadcasts.

Haka Bowl in trouble

It appears the Haka Bowl will be scrapped before its inaugural game.

The new bowl in New Zealand, which was supposed to have the third choice from the Pac-10, is expected to announce its insolvency today.

“We got informed this afternoon by the NCAA that they will have an announcement tomorrow regarding the Haka Bowl,” Pac-10 spokesman Jim Muldoon said Tuesday. “Intuitively, it doesn’t sound like good news.”

The Haka Bowl had until Tuesday to prove its solvency to the NCAA, and news broke Monday suggesting it would be unable to do so.

The elimination of the Haka Bowl would leave the Pac-10 with four bowl representatives.

“We certainly need five bowls,” Muldoon said. “The problem is, the only open bowl berth in America is one side of the Independence Bowl.”

If the Haka Bowl folds, the Sun Bowl would get the third choice from the Pac-10, behind the Rose and Cotton bowls. The Haka and Sun bowls had been scheduled to alternate each year between third and fifth choices.

“We knew that they were coming right up against the deadline for their letter of credit, so I wouldn’t say we would be totally shocked by it,” Muldoon said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: FLAG FOOTBALL WSU often ranks near the bottom of the Pac-10 in avoiding penalties (a 10th-place rank translates to having the most penalty yardage).

Year Rank Record 1989 8th 6-5 1990 9th 3-8 1991 10th 4-7 1992 8th 9-3 1993 9th 5-6 1994 8th 8-4 1995 10th 3-8 1996 10th 4-2